Privatization supporters withdraw liquor ballot initiative

Rum for sale at Downtown Salem Liquors. Alcohol tax dollars are the third biggest revenue generator for Oregon.
DANIELLE PETERSON / Statesman Journal A variety of liquor for sale at Downtown Salem Liquors. Alcohol tax dollars are the third biggest revenue generator for Oregon. That money goes into state, county and city general funds as well as mental health and addiction treatment programs. Photographed on Wednesday, March 19, 2014.(Photo: DANIELLE PETERSON / Statesman Jo, DANIELLE PETERSON / Statesman Journal)

The group hoping to ask voters whether they wanted to privatize liquor sales in Oregon has withdrawn its ballot initiatives.

"We still believe Oregonians are ready to end our state's prohibition-era monopoly on liquor sales," said initiative co-sponsor Lynn Gust of Oregonians for Competition in a statement. "However, a series of revisions we made to improve the initiative led to delays in receiving a final ballot title for the preferred version of the measure."

The problem was with the wording of the initiative's ballot title and the use of the word "tax." Oregonians for Competition had wanted the word replaced with the phrase "revenue replacement fee."

Supporters and opponents of the measure took their fight to the Oregon Supreme Court, which ruled on May 30 to require a rewrite. The problem was that it would have taken another week or two for the court to approve a revised ballot title — further delaying the group from collecting the 87,213 valid signatures needed to qualify an initiative for the November ballot.

The deadline to submit signatures to the Secretary of State was July 3.

In Oregon distilled spirits are sold only through state-licensed liquor stores. The state of Oregon owns the liquor stock, and prices are set by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC).

Grocery store chains had hoped to privatize liquor sales. Fred Meyer and Safeway donated more than $1 million to the campaign.

"This is welcome news – and not surprising. Oregonians are satisfied with our current system of liquor sales. They don't want to pay more for a new tax and they want to support our growing craft distilling industry, which this measure would have hurt," said Paul Romain from the Oregon Beer & Wine Distributors Association. "This was a solution in search of a problem to benefit big grocers."

The OLCC failed to convince lawmakers to modernize the state-run liquor system during the 2014 session. A proposed bill would have allowed state retailers to set their own prices and grocery stores larger than 10,000 square feet to sell distilled spirits.

The Northwest Grocery Association also failed to convince lawmakers to pass privatization legislation in 2013.

Oregonians for Competition stated in its release that it plans to push for privatization in the 2015 Legislative session or on the 2016 ballot.